


Of Truths and Lies

by TravisStoll



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Aletheia - Freeform, F/F, F/M, M/M, Prophecy, Quest fic, somebody help these three idiots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28753497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TravisStoll/pseuds/TravisStoll
Summary: Three half-bloods are sent out to fulfill the latest prophecy. What they have to do is... unclear. Prophecies, what can you do? Will's future father-in-law rushes to his aid. Miranda makes an intimate friendship with a dead poet. And Travis masters the principle of three times left is right. Well, this goddess has gotten herself an amazing rescue force.Set between Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo (foreshadowing for ToA included)
Relationships: Katie Gardner/Travis Stoll, Miranda Gardiner/Kayla Knowles, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Prophecies have more or less much untrue truth in them, and that is not a good thing

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Von Wahrheit und Lügen](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/742509) by Caduceus. 



> This is a translation! The original is written in german (also by me)

** Prophecies have more or less much untrue truth in them, and that is not a good thing: **

**Travis pov:**

The day was boring. It was oppressively warm, no wind blew and somehow it was pretty empty in the camp. The summer holidays would only start in a week and until then only about one-fifth of all demigods were present here.

I sat with my brother Connor on one of the low walls that surrounded the strawberry fields. We half-heartedly threw ideas at each other, hoping that there would be one that could help us with our boredom. So far, nothing particularly exciting has come out of it. Well, at least nothing where I also had the energy to do it in the heat. How did it come that in some summers it almost didn't get warm at all and in others it swings from one day to the next into an absolute heat wave? That couldn't be normal. Well, maybe it had something to do with global warming. I could ask Butch. His mother was Iris, so his cabin got sent these eco- and environmental magazines weekly.

From the corner of my eye, I saw campers running past again and again, until one suddenly headed directly towards us. With a nod of my head, I drew Connor's attention to her. Miranda Gardiner, Demeter daughter and the current head counselor in the cabin of the cereal-crazies. She is also the second-most annoying of her kind. Her older sister Katie, who is still at school, is and remains at number one. Connor and I looked at each other briefly in suspicion and then devoted ourselves to the approaching Demeter daughter.

„Hi Miranda. What’s up?“, asked Connor.

"Okay, that might sound like a stupid question, but if you could only choose one, who of you would get the title 'King of Pranks'?" she asked with her arms crossed.

She got the answer pretty much at the same time: "Me." "Travis." She looked at us briefly perplexed and then asked, "Really? No dispute over the title?" "Miranda, I wouldn't get this title now, I already have for a long time," I replied with a grin on my face.

Connor nodded and then added: "The Hermes cabin has a permanent competition for the title. Travis has had it for a year now. Before that, I had it for the proudest two weeks of my life. And before that it was Travis again." Miranda then nodded carefully. She sighed and said, "Then you should come with you to the big house. There is a prophecy about you."

A little frightened I flinched back. A prophecy? About me? I hadn't imagined breaking my boredom like this, that’s for sure.

Hesitantly, I slipped down from the wall and looked at Connor. My brother had also lost his smile and he looked a bit pale all of a sudden. I could understand him, I would feel the same if there was a prophecy about him. Especially since all possible communication did not work at the moment. That means, if I'm somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a quest I wouldn't even be able to send him an iris message.

"Are you sure?" I asked softly. The Demeter daughter just nodded. A devoted sigh escaped me. "Okay. I’ll come to the big house. Connor, I’ll be back as soon as possible."

He nodded an I brushed the dust off my pants. Miranda turned around and ran off; I trotted after her without thinking too much about it.

Quests were not such a big deal in and of themselves. Lately, we demigods have often been sent on small quests, especially since the communication is down. Instead of contacting the Romans in this way, one had to send a demigod there. It became quite normal. However, a mission with a prophecy was of a very different calibre. I got a little sick in my stomach. After all, we are living in a time where the dangerous prophecies were practically piling up. I had been lucky enough to have been a minor character in most of these things. Only the guy who had led the Hermes cabin through two wars. No life-threatening orders here.

Oh yes, the life of a demigod.

Before I could think about it, I was standing in front of the big house. On the table of the veranda lay an abandoned pinokel set, which made me suspicious. When both Chiron and Mr.D left their long-established post, it had to be something worrying.

I entered the meeting room. The ping-pong table, as always, was in the middle of the room, which would probably never change. On the walls, however, there were now some folding tables for the large gatherings. After all, more cabins meant more head counselors who had a say at how camp matters where handled. That meant the meetings generally became bigger and more chaotic. I couldn't explain to myself how the Romans did things like that in a civilized manner without the pure chaos that ensures here. Well, they are disciplined puppets I suppose. At one end of the table, Chiron sat in his enchanted wheelchair, and in one corner of the room, Mr.D sat with a bag of chips. However, not the brand chips. Cheap no-name chips.

Shit, it had to be really bad. 

There was only Miranda and I in the room. The daughter of Demeter looked at me and explained, "I was there when Rachel spoke this prophecy. We have a little clue who is meant, so now she’s getting Will. In general, we believe that it is meant to be a Demeter child, an Apollo child and you."

"And me."

"It was pretty clear," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

Great. When I was clear, it usually meant that it wouldn't work without me. I dropped on one of the folding chairs and waited. A short time later, Will Solace strolled through the door. Behind him, Rachel appeared. Will looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I answered his mute question: "Supposedly the prophecy means me very clearly." Will just nodded and sat on the chair opposite me. Miranda stayed to lean against one of the walls. She had her arms crossed and looked at Chiron waiting for him to speak. I did the same as her, and soon the centaur moved and looked at everybody in the round.

"As you have already heard, there is a new prophecy. Rachel said it was a little different than usual?" We turned towards the oracle, which nodded. She looked at us darkly and said, "Something is wrong with my powers. It's weird. As if my prophetic abilities had a loose contact and it gets worse and worse. This prophecy came only very fragmented, but I think I have everything together. But I am concerned. Especially since Apollo doesn't answer me anymore."

Meanwhile, I was sitting straight on my chair. I might not be the brightest at times, but even I understood that these were definitely not good signs. Rachel then shook her head and continued: "But this is a concern for someone else. I really hope i have all parts of the prophecy together, but I think the chances are good."

Then she got up and put her drawing pad on the table. She scrolled through a few sketches and pictures until she stopped on one page. The writing was the wrong way around for me, so I couldn't read what was on it, but Rachel did so for me:

_"King of pranks,_

_Healer of a dark soul,_

_Child of plants,_

_achieving the goal_

_husband of flowers,_

_red romances,_

_Scale, Eye and Feathers_

_the truth advances"_

For a moment there was a depressing silence in the room, and I didn't quite know what to do or think. Then my brain started to slowly restart again. The King of Pranks. Yes, I was fairly sure that’s me. Now I understood why Miranda had asked us that. Why had I insisted on this title so much? But the rest of the prophecy? What should that mean? I mean, it was to a hundred percent nothing good, but a bit more accurate would have been nice. But one could not negotiate with a prophecy. You had to work with what you got.

So I broke the silence first: "Okay. King of pranks, that's me. Clearly, after all, I have the title in the Hermescabin for ages now. The “achieving the goal”? I mean, that could mean anything actually, but I feel like it means my special ability." "Your ability?" "I am a son of Hermes. I always have an idea in which direction I have to travel to get to my destination, even if I don't know said destination yet. So maybe it’s that?" The others just nodded, but probably because they couldn't think of anything better.

The Will said: "I have the feeling with healer of a dark soul I am meant. Because... Well." I saw a slight glimmer of red on his cheeks and suddenly understood what he meant. Healer of a dark soul, so reworded: a private doctor of a certain shadow king named Nico di'Angelo? Yep, that made sense. At least for me. Moreover, one should take every demigod seriously who thought he had the feeling of a prophecy referring to him. Most of the time we felt that way for a reason.

"And I think I'm the plant child. I mean, it's very vaguely worded, but..." again she just shrugged her shoulders. I nodded to her. If she thought that was true, then I accepted it. Besides, there weren't many other options. Katie was still at school and all of Demeter's younger children were either way too young or not quite like that... planty. It was hard to describe. Katie and Miranda were always the ones who could make all the plants grow. The two younger ones were more responsible for harvests. It was these small, subtle differences about which only one child of Demeter could talk your ears off for hours. So I looked at my two future travel companions again and then turned to Rachel. "Are you sure you have all the parts of the prophecy?" "No. But it doesn't get any better, believe me." She looked at me apologetically and I covered my face with my hands. Well, seems like we were off to a great start.

"Does anyone have an idea of what the rest might mean?" asked Will. I shook my head. For me, most prophecies always sounded more like nonsense than anything else. I had never been the best person for historical analysis or poetry interpretations. No chance, even without dyslexia I was a hopeless case.

Again, Miranda said, "Well, most prophecies always just make sense afterwards. Let us just hope that we understand it at the latest when we need it. How about we go packing and leave tomorrow morning? If Travis is right, his instinct shows us in which direction we need to start, right?" That was not a bad idea, I had to admit. Sighing, I got up and said, "Sounds good. I’ll tell Connor that he has to cover me as head counselor as long as I'm gone. We all meet tomorrow after breakfast at the golden fleece?" The others confirmed to me that they would be there and then stayed behind to discuss with Chiron who would represent them as head counselors. Luckily that was an easy task for me. In front of the big house I breathed in deeply. I really didn't want this when I complained about my boredom. On the way to the Hermes cabin, the sun burned on my skin and I really hoped that this quest would lead us into air-conditioned buildings.

Happy over the shade on the veranda I opened the door to cabin 11 and immediately a little goblin came to meet me. Séan came running towards me and clung to my leg. The boy was now 6 and thus the youngest in my cabin. With big eyes, he looked up at me and asked, "Travis, do you have to die now?" This question, coupled with the serious fear in the boy's eyes, made me laugh.

"No, of course not. Why would you think such a thing?" I asked. I knew that the little one had seen more of death than was supposed to at that age, but I didn't want to worry him anyway. To be precise, I didn't really want to worry any of my siblings. But especially not the little ones. Relieved, Séan left and dragged me into the cabin. "You were right, Connor! He says he doesn't have to die," he shouted into the room. I just looked at Connor amused, then I shook my head. "Well, Connor. Looks like you're now a temporary head counselor. Until I come back, of course. The prophecy is quite vague as far as our goal is concerned, so unfortunately I can't tell you how long it will take. I can't even send you a message." I shook my head and sat down next to Connor on one of the empty beds. Séan also crawled up next to us and throned on the pillow.

Connor looked at me anxiously and asked, "Is there anything worrying mentioned in the prophecy?" "No more than usual, I think. A lot of confusing phrases and slight hints at who is meant. Except for me. 'The King of Pranks' was pretty clear."

Connor didn't look relieved at all, but then he sighed. "Well, there is nothing I can do, I suppose. When are you going to set out?" "Tomorrow after breakfast." "Okay. I'm still coming with you to the camp border, yes?" I smiled at him. I didn't expect anything other than a proper farewell from him. Distracted by a pillow that so slowly but surely made its way to the floor (with the Hermes child on it), I got up. I caught the six-year-old mid-fall and put him back on the bed. Then I decided to go packing.

I had learned early on not to do something like this at the very last minute, I would still need my sleep. Was the plan for tomorrow just archery with Chiron, ancient Greek lessons or canoeing? Stay as long as you want. Sleep is something for noobs. Would you face monsters, gods or maybe Clarisse tomorrow? Go to bed early!

And I had a quiet feeling that there would be no shortage of monsters on this mission.


	2. If a son of Hermes says that he has nothing dangerous with him, make it clear that explosives are dangerous

If a Hermes son says that he has nothing dangerous with him, make it clear that explosives are dangerous

**Mirandas pov:**

A little lost I stood in my cabin and looked around. Through the window on one side of the room, orange light flowed onto my desk, indicating that the sun was already setting outside. Somehow the day had passed far too quickly. This morning I just wanted to deliver a few flowers to Rachel and then everything just went downhill. She had wanted to turn the flowers into experimental natural colours, which of course interested me a little. The oracle was a gifted artist anyway, so watching her paint was sometimes incredibly exciting. And so I stayed for a while only to watch her cough up at the prophecy. Because that's what it looked like. Occasional words that kept coming out of her. I had grabbed her notebook and written it all down one by one.

After the first three words, I was already thinking about Travis and Connor. When it came to the child of the plants, I was already expecting the worst. And now? Now I just wanted to go to my bed and forget what had happened today.

In other circumstances, I would have sent Katie an IM and asked her for advice, but of course that wasn't possible at the moment. However, my big sister would probably not stop complaining for the next three hours about how irresponsible of a choice it was to send me along with Travis Stoll. Oh yes, I could already see her cheeks turn red with anger in front of my inner eye. Katie was very good at hating the Stolls, but especially Travis.

I didn't really have these problems with them quite like her. Of course, the two brothers from Hermes were sometimes incredibly annoying and absolutely irresponsible, but when it really mattered, they were always covering your back. After all, they had already proved this in two wars. So, I was pretty sure I could rely on Travis in this quest. At least when it came to the fighting and such.

As for Travis and Katie, I wasn't quite sure what that hostility was all about anyway. As far as I understood, it was something personal from a time before I had come to the camp. Supposedly they had been good friends a long, long time ago. I was really interested in what happened then, but Katie always said it wasn't important and Travis was like a ninja when it came to dodging topics that were uncomfortable for him. And there was no one else in the camp who really knew what had happened at the time. After all, they were still children back then and from our generation only Annabeth, Clarisse and Connor were already in the camp and none of them knew exactly what had happened between those two. And if even Connor didn't know, I would never get it out of Travis.

Shaking my head, I looked back into my closet. I had no idea how long we would be on the road and what I needed for it so packing just became a small quest of its own. I decided that it wouldn't make a difference how long I would walk around in dirty clothes if I was bleeding from any wound anyway, so I first put nectar, ambrosia and bandages as a priority. However, I was also sure that Will would probably carry half a doctor's office with him, so I wasn't too worried about that. In general, I was very happy that Will would come with us. The Apollo son was the perfect calming presence. So, if I actually start fighting with Travis, Will would be able to settle it within seconds. Besides, it was never a bad idea to have a healer on a potentially life-threatening mission.

Lost in thought, I packed a few herbs into bags and put them in my backpack. There are moments you could need something like that more than anything else. After all, what could be better than a hot cup of herbal tea after you just walked through the cold rain for hours? But when I looked out the window, I could hardly imagine that we would be confronted with any cold places. But well, you could use such herbs for a lot of other things. Among them I also put a small bag of seeds. If we came to a place without plants, I would otherwise be far too helpless, because I was not the best with my sword. It was enough, of course, to defend myself properly and it had also worked out well in two wars, but with my plant magic I was better. And I really didn't want to give up on small advantages. Otherwise, I just packed a few clothes and tied a sleeping bag to my backpack. Then I realized that a little emergency provision would probably not be a bad idea and left my backpack to lie on the bed.

I decided to check in the camp kitchen for something like cereal bars or something similar lying around. Carefully I sneaked past the lava rinses into the kitchen and looked around briefly. It had been cleaned up after dinner, so there wasn't really anything just lying about. From one direction, however, I heard something rattle. Confused, I saw one of the big storage cupboards around the corner and spotted Travis Stoll. Who else?

"What are you doing here?"

The son of Hermes didn't even flinch or turn to look at me. I wouldn't even be surprised if he had known I was coming since I was still at the sinks. Hermes’ children were creepy like that.

"I think the same as you. Gathering travel provisions."

He got up and grinned at me. With one hand he lifted a small box, then he said: "Have found a few cereal bars, biscuits and dried fruits so far. I don't necessarily want to take anything that could leak in my backpack."

That made sense. I looked at his find and then asked, "Isn't that a bit much to stuff into your backpack? How much do you plan to bring with you?"

"Oh well, I was with Will for a bit and he's already fully equipped in terms of nectar, ambrosia and co, so I thought I'd just take his ration of food with me. And otherwise, I just have the standard stuff that you just need, you know? Clothes, sleeping bag, weapons, dynamite and a flashlight."

"Wait, wait, wait, dynamite? Why do you need explosives for Hades’ sake?"

Travis shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't know yet."

"You won't take any explosives with you in your backpack, that's way too dangerous!"

The Hermes son turned a blind eye and said, "I'm not completely stupid, Miranda. Of course, I secured the stuff and packed it in an extra safe bag."

By his defiant voice I already noticed that I could not discuss with him and sighed. "All right. But be sure that nothing ignites. I mean, everything can happen during this kind of weather..." I left my sentence hang in the air and then took a look into the pantry myself.

Travis quickly showed me where he had found the cereal bars and then said his goodbye. I collected a few and also took a pack of the dried fruits with me. That should be enough for the time being. Should the quest take much longer, we could go to some store to restock on food. I had a bit of money with me and in case it really takes long, and we have no other choices... Well, why else would you take a thief with you? I didn't want to let it get that far though. I preferred to stay as far away from anything illegal as possible. Even if this was always a grey area with demigods. I mean, blowing up a volcano wasn't quite as legal, but who would come up with the idea that there are people like a certain Percy Jackson, for example, who are capable of doing something like this on their own. So, purely theoretically, there are no real regulations for many things that one just happens to do as a demigod.

I shook my head over my own thoughts. I should never say anything like that in front of Hermes children, they would take advantage of it forever. When I ran out of the kitchen with my loot, the slightly cooler evening air enclosed me. It was more pleasant than during the day in any case. I had to remember applying sunscreen tomorrow morning. Because if it was this bad in the camp, even though the weather was always regulated here, then I didn't want to know how bad it is outside.

In my room, I packed the food in my backpack and then put it at the door. Satisfied with being well prepared, I let myself fall into my bed. My sleep was relatively quiet, which one could only be happy about as a demigod. As I waited for the other two after breakfast, I realized that I was apparently the only one who had been blessed with a good night’s rest. Both Travis and Will looked pretty tired.

Both were accompanied by someone to the camp border. For Travis, of course, it was Connor. You could say what you wanted about the brothers, but the solidarity between the two was almost sweet. With Will, it was Nico who walked a little grimly next to his boyfriend. He said goodbye to Will with a little kiss, then he turned to us and said, "Bring him back without a scratch or I'll make you both regret it for all eternity." Travis saluted and I nodded to him. I knew Nico's threat was empty, but that didn't change the fact that I would do anything to get Will back here. Anything else would not be acceptable for me. And the way Nico looked, not for him either. Even Travis seemed to remain surprisingly serious.

Connor muttered only a "Take care. " and then stayed with Nico at the border.

Will and I walked down Halfblood Hill behind Travis. The son of Hermes stopped by the road and closed his eyes. I wanted to ask him what that was supposed to be doing for him when he suddenly pointed in one direction and said, "This way. We have to travel westward."

To be quite honest, I didn't even know that westwards was in this direction, but the inner compass of a son of Hermes probably worked better than mine does. After all, I had already managed to get lost in a department store where I've been five times before. And it wasn't really big a big store either.

So, we marched a good bit through the forest until we arrived at another road. Unsure, Travis stopped and looked into the street. He turned to us and said, "What do you think, how dangerous is it to try and hitchhike?" I raised my eyebrows and Will didn't seem happy about Travis' statement either. He said: "Very much. It's very dangerous. Why would you want to do it?"

I was confused by Will's question. In fact, there should be no question about even considering hitchhiking.

Travis looked focused and then replied: "Because our goal is in... estimated 370 miles to the west." 

"370 miles? Are you serious?" I cried in shock. The Hermes son, however, nodded only slightly distressed, which only confirmed my fear that he was telling the truth. 

"Fuck," Will said, then stood on the street. For a moment, he looked in the direction Travis had looked in before, and then asked, "So we have to go in the direction on the road? Let's just keep walking then and hope that the next driver takes us to the next train or bus station? Because seriously, a train ride seems much safer to me somehow."

We all nodded and walked along the street this time.

Pretty early on I realized that the road was probably not very busy. Soon the forest cleared, and a suburb could be seen in front of us. Perfect homes lined the streets and I looked tormented at the manicured lawns in the always same front yards.

Will looked at me and then said, "It's been far too quiet for me here. Miranda, you just looked so disgusted. What hurts your little Demeter heart?"

Travis also looked at me with interest, so I said, "This lawn. This perfect rolling turf, perfectly trimmed, perfectly watered and perfectly disgusting. Where is biodiversity? Where are the wildflowers and shrubs and the weeds? No wonder these warped, small suburban children get all the allergies, it's completely unnatural. These gardens disgust and insult me on a personal level." Will laughed and Travis grinned. Then the Hermes son said, "I can understand that; they are really disgusting. Where are the trees for climbing? The bushes to hide in? Besides, I don't quite understand what you have a garden for if you don't plant something like strawberries there. I mean, hey, free snack!"

Then Will added: "Or you could create an herb garden or a moss garden! I mean, they can be decorative, they just need to be cared for."

It was almost comfortable as we strolled through the streets of the suburb and made fun of front yards and the boring choices in decoration. I was grateful to Will for starting this conversation, I felt a lot looser. And time passed much faster like that too.

In no time we stood at a halt for the tram. "Platform Islip, gated community," Travis said, looking at the display board. "We take the four," he stated. Since I couldn't suggest anything better, I just sat down on one of the seats and looked at the display more closely. The four would enter the halt in seven minutes.

"Okay, seems like we now have about seven minutes for a brief discussion of the situation. Travis, you said something about those 370 miles earlier. What's 370 miles from Long Island?" "Grove City, Pittsburgh, Morgantown. That's the radius in the west that I feel like our destination is in. But Grove City feels almost too much in the north, so I'd expect it to be in the direction of Pittsburgh more," Travis said. I didn't have the slightest clue of where Grove City or Morgantown were, but as long as someone knew where he was going, I was at least a little reassured.

"Morgantown?" asked Will: "Isn't that too close?" "Oh no, you think of Morgantown in Pennsylvania. I mean the one in West Virginia," Travis said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"And you're sure you never swallowed a map in your childhood or anything like that?" He shrugged at my question and said, "Sometimes it's weird. I just get the directions like that. When I'm in some particularly big city, sometimes even special sights or historical facts about the city come to my mind, even though I'm 100 percent sure I've never heard of it before. It's just... a gift. Mostly quite useless, but now it seems to be a good thing."

He didn't seem to want to talk about it any further, which confused me a little bit. It seemed strange to me that he had this gift and did not boast about it everywhere. That didn't sound to me like the Travis Stoll I knew. Will looked at Hermes son thoughtfully, then his face lit up. "Hey, didn't this ability also have-?" "Luke. Yes." Travis looked at the railway tracks and said nothing else and I suddenly realized why he didn't boast about it.

I pondered what to say now, but before something could come to my mind that wasn't somehow tactless, our train arrived. I hadn't seen Will pulling us tickets, but now he handed them over to us and we got in. The train was ghostly empty, but this was to be expected at this time of day. I looked at my ticket. It was valid until Grand Central Station in New York. Travis looked at me and said, "Best connection point for all corners and ends of the nation. From there, we will safely reach our destination."

So, I nodded, sat down next to Will and looked around in the empty compartment. Somehow I felt that this was going way to easy so far...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly thankful for google maps! Helped me a lot figuring out the route for this quest.  
> (Also the option to show distance in miles because I have no idea how to use anything else than meters lmao)  
> Anyway... I hope you like it.  
> Honestly I haven't been this nervous while publishing something I wrote since 2013 fml


	3. Anemoi can get through every crack, but vacuum cleaners are a true hazard

Anemoi can get through every crack, but vacuum cleaners are a true hazard:

**Wills pov:**

Sitting next to Miranda, I pulled my backpack between my legs and leaned my head on the seat. I was tired. Damn tired. Last night I spent hours reassuring Nico and promising him a thousand times that I would come back. And that I would do so in one piece. I was already worried about him. Yesterday I was able to force a few promises out of him, but Nico was a person who liked to act rash when he is on his own. I was just hoping that he wouldn't skip his appointments with Mr.D.

I took a deep breath and tried not to drown in the thoughts and worries I had about Nico, because I doubted that it was healthy. Let alone help me. Instead, I imagined what it would be like when we came back, and I could see him smiling again. A gentle smile crept onto my face and I looked out the window.

The train passed relatively slowly through the entire suburban area. I could see us driving past some inanimate construction sites. I could understand it, I wouldn't want to do heavy physical work with hot machines in this weather, if I didn't necessarily have to do it. I looked further out the window and saw how the other two did the same. We all flinched when suddenly something scurried past our train window.

Travis groaned annoyed and moaned: "Oh come on, we're just getting started with this quest. Now already?"

During his sentence, he had already reached for his sword. Miranda also grabbed her sword, and I took my bow in my hand. Whatever kind of monster that was, it could definitely fly, which wasn't good at all.

Less than a second later, something swept through the aisle.

"Anemoi!" shouted Miranda, and I groaned. A wind spirit? How the Hades should one fight a wind spirit? I pulled up my backpack and jumped backwards into the aisle. I put an arrow in the tendon of my bow and drew it. The problem only became apparent when I was trying to aim.

"What am I shooting at on this thing?!" I shouted a little panicked. "No idea, just try something!" I got in response.

The wind spirit was in the form of a big horse, so I took arguably the most logical goal and shot at his head. This plan could not have backfired more. In a quick movement, the spirit had redirected my arrow, so that it was now stuck in one of the poor seats.

Besides, my attempt to hurt the Anemoi seemed to have made very, very angry. He reared and ran towards me. I jumped to the next seats I could get to dodge it and shouted at the other two, "Now do something!"

Even before I could see if the two were following my command, I was thrown into the air by the Anemoi. The next thing I saw, as I desperately clung to the luggage rack above me, was how Travis tried to pierce the wind spirit with his sword. For a comically long moment he looked at his sword and the horse. I could see the brief hint of panic in the Hermes son's face when he seemed to realize that his sword seemed to make absolutely no impact on the wind spirit at all. Then he flew backwards through the aisle. Miranda, meanwhile, hid behind a seat.

"That doesn't help!" she cried, "We have to leave!" I silently agreed with her and swung myself down from the rack. Meanwhile, Travis danced a proper looking dance with the Anemoi. Almost a real tango, I would say.

A little panicked, he shouted to us, "And how do you intend to run away from the wind?" That was a good point.

"Here, into the next compartment!" Miranda exclaimed.

Travis avoided his dance partner as best he could and rushed towards us. Together we ran into the next compartment and threw the door closed behind us. Obviously, it wasn't really working in throwing the Anemoi off, because it followed us without any major problems.

"What is it doing here?" Travis asked breathlessly: "Aren’t they normally locked up?"

"Someone must have put that on us," I replied.

Anemoi were actually normally trapped by the god Aeolus but could be summoned. Percy had told me about an encounter with the goddess Kymopoleia who had hounded an incredible number of the variety onto the Argo II. On the inside, I cursed. If someone had put an Anemoi onto us, then our quest was bothering someone powerful. We sprinted through this compartment too and slammed another unfortunately not airtight door. "Shit. Last compartment," I heard Miranda swearing. "So… we fight," Travis said, turning his sword up. I looked around in panic. After all, this was the demigod trick number one; Use your environment. Unfortunately, we were in an empty train, there wasn't that much useful stuff in it.

In one corner I saw a small door. It was locked with a chain lock, but that was no problem. In emergency situations, you didn't necessarily need to be a Hermes child. An arrow made of heavenly bronze would do the job alright. Without thinking too much, I shot an arrow into the chain lock. I collected the unharmed arrow again and then tore the remains of the lock from the door. Behind me, I heard Miranda screaming and fervently hoped to find something useful in this.

When I pulled away the sliding door, I realized that it was a storage room for cleaning items. I doubted that rubber gloves and disinfectants would be really helpful, but then I came up with an idea. It was crazy and probably doomed to fail, but you should always try everything. I grabbed the vacuum cleaner, plugged it in and shouted to the other two, "Come here."

Like good quest companions, they did not question me at all, but immediately ran to me, the Anemoi directly behind them. I turned on the vacuum cleaner and held towards the horse when it was close enough. I could have sworn I saw panic in its eyes for a short moment, then it was sucked into the vacuum cleaner. I didn't turn off the vacuum cleaner, otherwise the horse would have jumped right back out again. Instead, I just left the device where it was and went to safety distance.

"I can't believe that worked," I said. Shortly after I said this, the vacuum jerked violently. "Oh I shouldn't have said anything," I said, and then Miranda took my arm and said "How long it works or not is irrelevant, you've given us a huge edge. Come on, we have to leave!" she said.

During our fight, the train had simply continued as if there were no problems in this world. The scene outside had changed significantly. The individual houses and the endless suburbs had become high-rise buildings and shops. Without warning, Travis had pressed the emergency stop, causing the train to slowly halt in its tracks. He pointed to one of the emergency-exits and before the train has fully stopped, the Hermes son had opened the door and we jumped out. As fast as we could, we disappeared from the tracks and dived into the full streets. We just followed Travis, who seemed to know exactly where we needed to be.

At one point, Miranda said, "Okay, what the Hades? 'Travis, Will, I achieving the goal, husband of flowers, red romances, Scale, Eye and Feathers, the truth advances '. Does that mention anyone who could put a fucking Anemoi onto us? I thought it was damn hard to summon these things?"

"It is," I confirmed to her: "As far as I know, only two groups have had to deal with them in the last hundred years. Jason, Piper and Leo on their mission back then and later the crew of the Argo II. But they had much more powerful demigods with them, so they could defeat these things. But we? I don't know how to do it except maybe with a magically reinforced vacuum cleaner."

"Who could summon Anemoi?" asked Travis. I replied, "Pretty much every single God and anyone who has talent in practicing summoning magic. I wouldn't even be surprised if even Lou Ellen could do it with a bit of practice." "Oh, that doesn't surprise me. The woman is hardcore" Travis said afterwards.

Miranda grabbed her forehead. "So, I'll summarize: Something or somebody must have put this horse onto us. We have no idea who exactly it is and can only limit it to about half of all magical beings, which is still far too much. And we have no idea why." Travis and I just nodded and Miranda continued, "Well, great. And how do we get rid of this thing now? I doubt the vacuum cleaner had stopped it for too long." This time, Travis and I just shrugged.

"Perfect," Miranda sighed. Without really discussing it, we walked a little faster.

It didn't take long for us to suddenly stand in front of the Central Station. Travis looked up and covered his face. "Why do they always have to portray my father naked? Nobody wants to see that."

I, too, looked up and recognized the Hermes statue above the big clock. I hoped it was a good omen and said, "Well, look at it like this. Maybe your father will take better care of you here."

"My father hasn't bothered to take care of me even once in his whole life, I doubt he'll start here," the Hermes son replied, looking at the entrance.

For a moment I flinched back and stared at the Hermes son in amazement. While it was hardly surprising that Hermes' horrible-father-gene had also had an impact on Travis, I had never heard him speak like that. Normally he avoided talking about his father at all. Especially if it was something negative. I knew that this was a behavior that he had become accustomed to in the first war. The Hermes children, and especially Connor and Travis, had been mistrusted by half the camp. He obviously did not want to incite this mistrust unnecessarily. To hear him talk so unappreciatively about his father now... I disliked that. Not because I didn't trust Travis. It was just so weird for him that it worried me.

Unsure, I looked at Miranda, who must have noticed the same thing. She looked at me just as uncertainly, but then shook her head and rushed after our guide. I did the same as her and soon we were in a train compartment again. This time the train was much fuller, which didn't make it any better. We were deciding on a place to sit as far as possible in a corner and there I was suddenly given a bag of dried fruits. Blinking down to the food, I watched Travis take something for himself to eat. Miranda got something out of her own backpack. I felt the need to slap myself. I had heat ointment for frost burn with me, for the most unlikely worst-case scenarios, but hadn't thought of something as banal as food? I wanted to give Travis his food back as I shouldn't take his food because of my own forgetfulness.

I just wanted to give him the dried fruit back, but he shoved my hand away again. Quietly, he said, "It's yours. I've seen all your ointments and shit you took with you and just packed food for you. I trust that in return I will always be doctored by you when I need it."

I just nodded and quietly opened the pack of fruit. I somehow didn't expect it to make me feel so touched. He had thought of me and took food for me, even though he didn't know me so well. Maybe I should have talked to Travis a lot earlier, maybe he really had the potential to be a very good friend. I sank into the seat a little bit and ate my fruit. I was almost ashamed when I thought about how I had treated the Hermes son during the first war. Because I admit I was definitely one of those who distrusted him. Of course, I had always helped him when he was injured, after all, I had an honor as a healer. But I hadn't really been nice to him.

The whole thing got worse because I had befriended Katie back then. And everyone knew that if you only let her, she could scream at and scold the Stolls all day long. But I had never really formed my own opinion about the Hermes sons. I hoped that would change in the course of this mission. And I hoped we would become good friends.

I looked at Miranda and a smile was on my face. Yes, as we were sitting and eating here on the train, I was sure that we would all grow closer together. After all, what could be better to strengthen social ties than to eat together? Soon my bag was empty, and Travis said, "I would suggest changing the compartment and the train every so often so that our half-blood smell doesn't accumulate so much in one place." We nodded and stood up together.

After we had hopped through some compartments a few times, we stood at one of the exits. Travis said at the next station, another train would be going in a similar direction in four minutes. Shortly before our train stopped, a man from the opposite compartment suddenly came towards us through the door. If you could call the monster a man. It was like a huge snake with two heads snaked through an expensive suit like a balloon animal. My hand rushed to my bow and the other two were quickly armed too. The snake man flinched back and lifted his... Hands? If you could say that.

He hissed briefly and then said with a little fear in his voice: "Pleasssse don't. I don't want to do anythhhhing to you, I just want to go home to my wife.” "Your wife?" asked Miranda, confused.

"Yesss, she can't ssssee through the fog. I love her. I don't hunt demigods, I have anossssmia."

"What is that?" asked Travis, and I replied, "He can't smell."

Confused, I held my bow down. I wasn't sure what to do. Which monster begged for mercy instead of attacking immediately? The train stopped and we stepped outside, the snake man still had his hands raised. He was carrying a briefcase on his left.

Miranda said, "So you don't chase demigods because you can't smell them anyway?" "Exactly." "And that's why you decided to live the life of a normal mortal?" "Yesss." "Do you still get to know what's going on in the monster world?" "A bit, not much, the mosssst monsssters avoid me fortunately." "Do you know someting about Pittsburgh?" Miranda asked, and I realized what she was doing. Perhaps the snake man with anosmia could help us.

He seemed to be thinking, then he nodded. "I know they're guarding ssssomething. A feather of sssortsss. In the ssssunken gardenssss. I don't know what that meansss." I stood up straighter after this. "Feather, eye, scale, the truth. We have to go to the sunken gardens for the feather, whatever that means."

"I know where it is," Travis said. We took our weapons down and Miranda turned to the business snake: "All right, thank you for the help. Go home to your wife, but just don't backstab us or you will regret it.”

He nodded and rushed away with his briefcase. We stopped at the railway track and waited as planned for the next train.

"So... You know what these sunken gardens are?" I asked Travis. He shook his head. "No, I have no idea what they are, I just know where they are. We have to go to Shenley Park, which is pretty much in the middle of Pittsburgh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo chapter three here we gooo.


	4. Truth is that bridges are generally much cheaper than hotels in the city center

Truth is that bridges are generally much cheaper than hotels in the city center:

**Travis‘ pov:**

Our other train journeys were much more bearable than our first. I really hoped that this stupid horse was still stuck in the vacuum cleaner. During our train ride I saw the sun setting so slowly. Our walk and the train hopping had taken an astonishing amount of time. But what should you do when you are a demigod? I looked at my backpack and became thoughtful. It was weird. Will and Miranda were very trustworthy people, really, I couldn't think of better people to accompany me on a mission. However, there was something... Personal between us.

Both had been part of the faction "don't trust Hermes children" during the first war and even after that I had never really warmed up with them. In the end, I think I was the one with trust issues. I flinched at that. What was that? I never had such thoughts, something like that was usually pushed into the farthest corner of my brain or I just simply lied to myself. Yes, I knew I was lying to myself, but it was all just a self-protection! What's going on with me today? It was almost the same as outside Central Station, where I had just talked about my father. I didn't do that otherwise. I didn't say what I thought. I lied and twisted truths or just kept silent.

There was something weird going on.

Then a thought came to me. A very horrible, horrible thought. An interpretation of our prophecy, in which I really hoped that the next best teacher would come by and write a big, red F on me. Okay, no. I decided to test my theory before I raced out here.

"Hey Miranda? Why are you in camp all year round?"

"I hate my father," she told me, then slapped her hand onto her mouth. Will, too, looked at us in confusion. In every other situation, she always answered this question evasively. She would have her reasons and so on.

I groaned in frustration. "Guys, I have a very bad feeling about this." "What?"

"This last sentence of prophecy. 'The truth advances.' What the truth advances on us? Can any of you lie?" The other two looked at each other.

Then Will began: "I hate... N... N... Nuts. No. I love Nico. No, I hate... damn, you're right, I can't lie.' He looked panicked and I almost got sick. What was a Hermes son who couldn't lie? A nobody, just a shadow of himself, that’s what he was! I got up and walked left and right in distress. "All right. I know we're certainly curious little assholes, but we really shouldn't tell the others stuff about us that we want nobody to know. I have a few secrets that I would like to keep. The phrase 'I don't want to talk about it' should suffice. Miranda, I'm sorry I asked you about that. You don't have to tell us anything about your father."

I didn't even notice how the other two reacted but kept walking. When I didn't get an answer though, I looked at them. They both looked at me quite amazed. "What?" I asked.

It was Will who reluctantly replied to me: "I'm sorry, I just underestimated you, I think. After all the time I was sure you were stupid and childish, I hadn't expected such an adult suggestion from you. And I didn't expect your apology to Miranda."

"What do you think? That I'm a complete asshole?" In response, both looked uncertain. At one point, Miranda said, "I don't want to talk about it?" Frustrated, I groaned. Cool. Great. The two people I now have to travel with for who knows how long think of me as an asshole. "All I wanted for half my life is that people like me and think I’m nice and yet I manage to make everyone think of me as an asshole. Well, great." I dropped back into my seat and looked at the ceiling of the train. Somehow, I really didn't feel well.

"You... Really?" Miranda suddenly asked softly. "What?" "You just want people to like you?" I shrugged. I didn't even notice that I had said it out loud. "I don't want to talk about it," I just muttered. The others at least seemed to respect this and did not ask any further. For the rest of the train journey, I was immersed in my thoughts. I wondered what might have triggered our truth-telling. But I couldn't really think of anything. Sometimes I wish I had a little bit of Athena’s genes in me. Miranda and Will also seemed to be deeply engulfed in thought.

Then Will looked out the window and asked, "How long until Pittsburgh?" "About twenty minutes." "Do you think we'll find a place to stay there? I doubt that we should go any further today. It's late and I for my part didn't have that much sleep last night."

I nodded and added, "And I’m all in to get food first too. I'm starving.” Miranda held her belly, and I concluded that she was feeling no different. Our breakfast and the little snack break were both far too long ago.

When the train finally stopped and we got off, the slightly cooler night air hit me. The day had been incredibly hot again, but the trains had all been air-conditioned, so it had all been tolerable. I kind of hoped that all our fights like the one with the Anemoi would take place in air-conditioned rooms. However, I knew that we really shouldn't be hoping for so much luck. But the monsters could really limit themself to fights in the evening or morning when it’s not that hot, right? A light wind blew around my nose. The air carried this typical evening scent, and I could feel how my body noticeably relaxed. I've always been feeling better when it gets dark. I knew it was the other way around for most people, but I just felt safer when the protection of darkness surrounded me. At the moment this was disturbed by the light of the streetlights, which illuminated everything at least a little bit, but that was just how it was in a city center.

We had walked out of the station area wordlessly and looked around for a fast-food restaurant. We really didn't have enough money for high-quality food. It was also much easier to slap a sloppy McDonald's burger in the face of a monster than a fillet mignon or something.

In the end, my instinct and growling stomach had led us to a subway on Penn Ave. We ordered our sandwiches as take away and I looked around. A cheap hotel would have been my first idea to stay overnight, even if I hated hotels. Too many bad experiences. Nevertheless, I tried to start my internal navigation system with the command "cheapest hotel in the area". As we walked, I ate my sandwich and looked around. The city was amazingly clean. I had never been to Pittsburgh, so I tried to memorize everything I saw. You never knew when you could use it.

When I ate, I threw my packaging into a trash can at a bus stop. The others did the same as me. It only took a moment of silently walking when we weren't busy with food anymore for Will to start talking: "So Travis... you mentioned this morning that sometimes you randomly think of facts about a city when you're there. Do you have anything interesting to say about Pittsburgh? Maybe it helps us with the other two things. Anything about eyes or scales?" I grabbed my chin and thought. Pittsburgh...

"Second largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia. Also called Steel City, because of the steel industry. City of Bridges, for obvious reasons. Hmm, what else? A lot of museums and relics from the steel industry on display for visitors. And nothing else interesting. At least not for us. If you are interested in the history of steel construction and the industrial revolution, this is the city for you. But as a demigod you will not find anything interesting here. Sorry, I don't have much more." "Hey, that's far more than I expected. You have a really cool ability," Miranda said, smiling at me. The compliment came so unexpectedly that I only managed to say "thank you" bashfully. As far as I could remember, no one had ever described my gift as cool. When I was very young, I was just the weird nerd who has far too much useless knowledge, which other five-year-olds didn't care about. And in the camp the ability became unnecessary very quickly, because there was never really a big trip to go on. And then, of course, there was this whole thing with it connecting me to Luke. Without being able to influence my reaction much, my face dropped.

It was Will who yanked me out of my thoughts: "And it's not even that uninteresting. Do you think any of these steel factories make scales? That would be at least a starting point." I shook my head. "I highly doubt it. As almost everywhere, the steel industry here has been dead for a long time. Just the relics of it are still here as museums and sights. " "Well, maybe it has something to do with it. But that something we can take care of after we have the feather." Miranda and I just nodded and then suddenly we stood in front of a big house. The hotel that my inner navigator had been looking for. Miranda was the one to ask for the price for a night and Will and I secured the surroundings.

A few minutes later, Miranda returned with a grumpy face. She looked at me and asked, "Are you sure this was the cheapest hotel in the area?" I nodded and she continued, "Damn city prices. They charge 74 dollars per night and per person here." "What?!" Miranda just nodded in frustration and I dropped my head in my neck. That would be 222 dollars for the three of us. For one night. They're nuts if they think the average poor teenager could afford that! Well, to be fair, that probably weren’t the kind of people they liked to attract anyway.

"Okay, Plan B. We all have a sleeping bag with us, right? Has any of us not had any experience of being homeless?" It was almost sad that Miranda and I just shook our heads at Will's question. Unfortunately, it was relatively normal for many demigods to live on the streets at some stage in their lives. "Okay, so were agreeing on doing that I suppose. Travis, if this is also the city of bridges, surely there must be one nearby under which we can sleep, right?" I just pointed to the left and said, "Roberto Clemente Bridge, this way."

After a short walk I noticed satisfied that the bridge was already occupied by some people. We looked at each other and mingled with the people. The scene looked like in many places. At one corner, a man laid on several blankets and drooled onto an old magazine. The used syringe was still lying next to him. Two older men sat leaning against a bridge pillar and shared a loaf of bread. And on the other side, there were four teenagers sitting together, all of whom didn't look gender-conforming, which made me think about how shitty their parents must be. One of the four had only one eye.

The young Cyclops looked at us briefly and then turned back again to his friends. They seemed harmless, so we stayed peaceful. We looked for a place as protected as possible and spread out our sleeping bags. Will's caught my eye. There were several embroideries on the side, a few of them looking as if a beginner had embroidered them. Smiling Suns and lyres. I also spotted a crooked grinning cat and two Pegasi. Grinning, I asked him who had done it. "Oh, everyone. The Apollo cabin basically has three sleeping bags at the ready, which we can take with us on quests. Whenever a new Apollo child comes to the cabin, they are allowed to embroider something on all sleeping bags. We actually have a fourth, but no one is allowed to take it with them. The embroidery goes back a few generations and we cannot risk that this might be destroyed."

I laughed, but then nodded affirmatively. It was kind of cool that every cabin had its strange traditions. It made me pretty happy to think about. Will, meanwhile, seemed to be deep in thought. Then he suddenly pointed to the crooked-grinning cat and said, "I did that one. That was the cat that was always laying around my old neighborhood. I had named them Sir Meowlord Catselot." 

Both Miranda and I had to laugh at the name. "Hey! I was six, okay?" the Apollo son said, defending his name decision. However, he was also grinning, so I knew he didn't feel offended at our laughs. The conscience that he had just told the truth only made the whole story even better. Smiling, I sat down in my sleeping bag and yawned. Miranda also saw this and suggested that she would do the first night watch, as she was apparently the only one to have slept well last night. Somehow, I was almost jealous. I had spent the last night rolling in my bed and worrying. My intention to go to bed early had backfired terribly, because I was lying in bed but still couldn't sleep. Half the night such a stupid feeling in my stomach accompanied me that I simply had not been able to shake off. But it had an advantage. Now I was tired enough to lie down and fall asleep almost immediately.

Miranda had given me the shift as a third night-guard and wished us a good night after which I had already drifted away.

_When I opened my eyes again, I saw... Forest. What? How did I get into the forest? I tried to get up and found that I couldn't move. I wasn't really here; it was a dream. Frustrated, I wanted to be able to scream more than anything. A demigod's dream was the last thing I would have wanted right now._

_Even before I could look around, my dream body was dragged through the forest. I got almost sick at the speed, especially when I came to a stop just as quickly. Now I was on a clearing guarded at all corners and ends by a lot... things that I had never seen before in my life. Hairy things with white fur all over their body. But I saw two who seemed to have black fur, but that could only be a strange fashion statement. The monsters also had insanely huge ears. So huge that I would almost laugh at it, if it was only possible in a dream. On one of the monsters closest to me, I could count eight fingers on one hand. Somehow my brain didn't quite get it right. Eight fingers were far too much even by monster standards._

_A loud voice, spewing swears and profanities, drew my gaze to the middle of the clearing. There was a huge golden cage. In it was a woman who had her eyes blindfolded. She was tied to all sides of the cage; half of her body was covered by the golden and bronze shackles. She definitely had to be powerful when you really needed so much heavenly bronze and imperial gold just to lock her up. "Of your own free will, you have to be honest, of your own free will!" she cried, and suddenly the smell of smoke filled my nose. The dream changed and I was in a fire. The smoke and flames were all I could see, and I thought I had to die. Could you die in a dream? Desperately, I tried to wake myself up, because I preferred to not find out the answer to this question. But it didn't seem to help, because instead it just got hotter. Struggling for air, I was trapped in my burning dream._

_Then I heard a deep laugh and any attempt to breathe was unsuccessful._

Gasping for air, I sat up way to fast. I could see black dots in my vision and I still felt like something tried to stop me from breathing. Vaguely I realized somebody was holding my hand, so I tried to figure out who is with me.

After my vision cleared, I saw Miranda's distressed face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go again! In german this goddamn story is already over 44k words long...  
> Which means I'm a bit behind in translating. Oh well, I'm doing my best ha

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first longer story in english. This is more or less an experiment for me.  
> If you see huge mistakes in grammar/vocabulary let me know!  
> I'm honestly just curious if my english is comprehendable. And if it is I wanna know if people want to read more of this ^^


End file.
